Low carb diet

"I lost 8 kg this year alone due to stress at work," Brendan declared, jest fully comparing his workplace to a slimming centre.

Like many health-conscious Singaporean, I get an annual physical examination when my doctor gives me valuable advice about moderating my diet and exercising more, after which I go have some bak kit the with lots of you tiao to celebrate the fact that I am not dead yet.

Because of changing technology, most of us have jobs that don't require us to even break a sweat, much less actually perform difficult manual tasks. In not-so-ancient times, plowing fields burns more calories than anything you do in the office, even if you count the aerobic activity of adding paper to the photocopier.

Most people I know have failed at their dieting efforts. Thankfully, there's now the low-carb diet craze.

The day will come

"I miss my son," a new NS mum lamented 

The day will come when our children will finally, actually, officially, permanently and irrevocably leave home. We will be left with a host of memories, photos and lego sculptures we have been saving for years. It never gets easier. It gets difFerent, but not easier.

I don't know what the future holds for my son. I have hopes and dreams for him, but God has not given me a glimpse into the future. God never promised us smooth sailing through the sea of life. He only promised to be with us in the boat.

Love wins out - always

ACE had a medical setback yesterday.

In practical terms, love instills the will to persist when the going gets so tough that any "reasonable" person would quit. I see this demonstrated many many times when a child is seriously ill or terribly injured in an accident and mum and dad lovingly invests countless hours over a period of months - even years - in an effort to comfort and hopefully restore him to mental and physical health.

Love wins out - always.

Empathy

"I am going to get my belongings back. It's over between us," Wei Wei murmured.

True love is about making the effort to understand the different world a loved one inhabits and to respect the individuality within it.  This is because we are all very complicated. Everything we do, say and think is tied up with the experiences of our entire lives. Because you are an individual, no one will ever know what it is like to be you.